Tampa Bay Times Finds Hillsborough Foster Agency Moved Hundreds of Kids Through an Off-the-Books System

A Tampa Bay Times investigation published this week found that Hillsborough County's lead child welfare agency, Children's Network of Hillsborough, has for years routed hundreds of families through an informal system of "temporary custody transfers" that operate largely outside the courtroom oversight built into Florida's foster care laws. The findings matter to any Hillsborough family that has come into contact with the child welfare system, because the arrangement can move a child out of a parent's home without the ongoing judicial review that formal foster care requires.

Reporters built a database of more than 300 of these transfer cases filed in Hillsborough between July 2022 and June 2026. Those cases affected the living situations of more than 370 children. Only 26 of the cases ended with a judge ordering a child returned home or with the case simply being dropped, according to the investigation. Another 46 cases were dismissed on procedural grounds, and there is no record showing where those children ended up.

The Times reported the agency itself does not track how most of these arrangements end for families once a transfer is filed. That means the county has no reliable picture of how many children eventually went home, how many stayed with relatives long-term, or how many landed somewhere else entirely.

How the transfers work

Unlike a formal removal into foster care, a temporary custody transfer can be arranged with a signature rather than a full court hearing. The Times detailed the case of one Tampa mother, Leslie Flora, who says she was told in November 2023 that her children needed to move in with her in-laws right away. She later signed paperwork that included a temporary custody transfer, telling the newspaper she believed she had no real choice, that refusing to sign felt like risking losing her children permanently.

Because these transfers do not always trigger the same court calendar as a formal dependency case, a parent can end up without a scheduled hearing date, a case manager checking in, or a clear path laid out for getting their children back. Child welfare sources described the practice to the Times as a "hidden foster care system," since the cases are not counted in the official state and federal foster care statistics that lawmakers and regulators use to judge how the system is performing.

What the agency says

Children's Network of Hillsborough leaders told the Times the transfers were designed to keep children out of the formal foster care system altogether, arguing that staying with relatives or trusted family friends, even informally, causes less trauma than a placement with a licensed foster family. The agency pointed to its broader work with more than 6,000 families across the county as context for the scale of its caseload.

After reporters requested outcome data and found the agency did not have it readily available, agency leaders said they are now compiling aggregate numbers on how temporary custody transfer cases are resolved. No timeline for finishing that review has been made public.

Why it matters for Hillsborough families

Florida's dependency courts exist so that when the state or its contracted agencies get involved in a family's life, a judge keeps checking in: setting deadlines, ordering services, and ultimately deciding when a child goes home. A temporary custody transfer can sidestep that structure. For a parent already dealing with a hard situation, whether it is a domestic violence case, a struggle with addiction, or a Department of Children and Families investigation, the difference between a formal case with a court date and an informal handshake arrangement can determine how fast, or whether, they get their kids back.

Children's Network of Hillsborough holds the county's contract to manage child welfare cases, funded through the state's community-based care system. Hillsborough County commissioners and the circuit's dependency judges are not the agency's direct overseers day to day, but the findings raise questions likely to come up as the agency's performance and contract are reviewed going forward.

Stay with the Tampa Community Website at tampa-community.com as this story develops locally, including any response from county officials or the courts. Follow us on Facebook for updates, and join the conversation in our Community Forum to share your own experience with the child welfare system. For more coverage of local government decisions affecting Hillsborough families, visit our government and politics section, and for broader community accountability stories, check our news section.

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